Following the rapid advance in information technology, computers have become an indispensable tool in our daily life. To render the functions of the computer more diversified, many computer peripheral products and add-ons have become important tools in enhancing the capability of the computers. In terms of data storage media, storage devices capable of storing data and reading devices capable of accessing the storage devices have also become the focus of the computer peripheral products. Since optical discs have advantages in low cost, easy to carry, large storage capacity, easy to preserve, long storage life and less susceptible to damage, the optical discs are gradually replacing the conventional magnetic storage media. Due to the widespread use of the optical discs, optical disc drives capable of accessing the optical discs have also become common computer peripheral products in daily life.
The optical disc drives may be classified as tray-type optical disc drives and slot-in type optical disc drives according to the mechanism for loading an optical disc, wherein the slot-in type optical disc drives may further be classified as the roller type and the clamp type. Taking the roller type optical disc drive for an example, when the optical disc is put into the optical disc drive from an panel opening of the optical disc drive, the optical disc drive uses a drive motor and a gear module to drive the roller into rotation so as to send the optical disc onto the spindle motor, and thus a reading module of the optical disc drive may access the data in the optical disc. When the optical disc is done being used, the optical disc drive uses the drive motor to drive a linkage to push the optical disc to the roller, and then uses the rotation of the roller to move the optical disc out of the optical disc drive. Accordingly, under a normal circumstance, loading and ejecting actions of the optical disc may be performed by the drive motor and the internal components (such as the linkage or the gear module) of the optical disc drive.
When the drive motor or a circuit board has a malfunction and causes the optical disc drive to be unable to automatically move the optical disc in and out of the optical disc drive in accordance with normal procedures, the general design is to insert a needle-shaped object into the optical disc drive to manually push the internal components of the optical disc drive from outside of the optical disc drive, so as to eject the optical disc. However, in the slot-in type optical disc drives, the loading and ejecting actions of the optical disc are mainly driven by the drive motor and the gear module, such that it is not easy for the user to use the needle-shaped object to resist a high torque generated by the drive motor and to push the internal components of the optical disc drive to eject the optical disc.